A place to waste some time on music, movies, current events and whatever.

Friday 25 January 2008

Jape @ De Barras, Clonakilty, 27/12/07

Apologies for taking so long to put the review up - shitty health will do that though.

And so it was on a wet, windy miserable Thursday night that many, nursing their St. Stephen's Day hangover, ventured to De Barras in Clonakilty for a unique one man show by Richie "Jape" Egan.Compressing the accompanying band music down to his "magic box", Egan faced an unusual venue for his energetic indie electronica, the snug setting more appropriate for a trad session than the type of performance that Whelan's in Dublin would witness days later on New Year's Eve.This gig, however, was tempered by low-tempo renditions of To The Sea and a cover of Leonard Cohen's Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye amongst others, and thankfully he didn't appear at least to be underwhelmed by the static, seated crowd, feeding off his own energy when needed, bounding around the tiny stage with gusto and necessary care so as not to trip on the myriad of instruments at his feet.This was a good thing too, because the noise and movement of the crowd, or lack thereof was in no way an indictment of a bad show. Call it the festive mood or whatever, all were captivated and took in a gig with an intimate atmosphere and a compelling act, who, stripped of supporting band didn't suffer.Finishing with Phil Lynott, this was an unusually cosy setting for Jape but one that was welcomed by a crowd who, like Richie himself confessed, just wanted an excuse to escape Christmas for a few hours.